There have been so many times I’ve sat down to spend time with God in prayer – and my mind just seems to go blank. Other times I feel like a broken record, bringing the same things over and over before God.
One day, I was reading a verse out of Psalm 119 that said His word is a “lamp for our feet, a light on our path.” In that moment it hit me. His word is the “LIGHT” that will GUIDE MY PRAYERS! This got my #Brightonbrain spinning about some helpful ways I could use scripture to pray and I want to share them with YOU!
First though, let’s talk about “the WHY?”….
Why Pray Scripture?
It helps you focus on what is important
It’s easy to fill my prayers with issues I am mainly concerned about such as illness, money, anxiety, relationships, etc. It’s not wrong to pray about things I am concerned about, but scripture helps guide me to pray for things that God is really concerned about. For example, anxiety is something people pray about often. It’s easy to pray again and again for him to take it away, but His word challenges us to develop a thankful heart in Philippians 4:6. So my prayers might be shaped, by not just bringing my desires for anxiety to subside before him, but filling my prayers with thanksgiving. Maybe it’s what I’m thankful for in that day or aspects of God’s character that I’m thankful for, but He is trying to orient my heart towards something greater than my anxiety. His word helps us pray towards growth and maturity as disciples, not just outcomes.
It helps you pray the TRUTH with confidence
I can feel confident when I pray scripture because I know it’s the truth. It is firm ground to stand on during my prayer time because it expresses God’s will, character, and promises to us. I feel so much more confident asking for things when I pray with scripture because he tells us in his word what he has promised to us and how he wants to transform us.
It keeps your prayers fresh
Like I said earlier – some days I have the same prayers on repeat. I can be a creature of habit and sometimes my creativity is lacking when it comes to what to pray, but I have a whole bible full of verses I can use to pray. Psalms alone feels like a never-ending resource of prayers that I can turn to and use to help me form what I want to say to God.
There are several other reasons praying scripture is a great idea, but these are just a few that I have found to be helpful for me!
Practical Tips for Praying Scripture
Memorize Scripture
The more familiar you become with God’s word, the easier it will be for it to come to mind when you pray. Grab a friend and practice memorizing verses together – it’s great accountability!
Make a Scripture prayer journal
One great use for this would be to write down sentences or phrases you see in scripture that will help you build up biblical ways of speaking when you pray. Having these will help give you language to pray with. This journal is also a great place to record all of your scripture inspired prayers. I usually read through a passage and then write a section of it I would like to pray through at the top of my journal page. Then I write my personalized prayer below it.
Pray using the 3 R’s: Rejoice, Repent, and Request
With most verses in scripture, especially the Psalms, we can use one or more of these to pray. I have included an example of this below:
Psalm 51:1 (ESV) “ Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.”
Rejoice – God, you are so generous in your love and mercy towards me. I am so humbled to call you my God. Thank you for sending Jesus to blot out all of my sins and take away my guilt and shame.
Repent – Forgive me, Father. There are so many times I take your love and generosity towards me for granted. It is so easy for me to rush through my day without acknowledging how grateful I am for you.
Request – Give me eyes to see all of the many ways you extend your grace and mercy towards me. Help me to also extend that love and mercy to others so they will also know what a loving Father you are and how much you care about your children.
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These have been easy ways for me to start using God’s word in my prayer life! It has been so effective and honestly made praying a lot more fun! The Psalms are a great place to look for scripture you can use to pray because they are meant to be used for just that! I would love to hear if you start using any of these in your own prayer life and how they are working for you!
